Increase in UK anti-Semitism this year ‘due to better reporting’

2015/07/31 Leave a comment

A reminder that a number of different factors influence statistics, including better reporting, making it harder to isolate underlying trends (CST is better than most in identifying these factors):

A 53 percent increase in the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Britain during the first six months of 2015 can be ascribed to greater communal awareness of the problem coupled with better reporting, the Community Security Trust reported on Thursday.

There have been 473 reported incidents this year, compared to 309 for the same period last year, and 223 in the first half of 2013.

Despite the rising trend, the figures do not come close to the 629 incidents reported in 2009 – the year in which most of the fighting in Operation Cast Lead (against Hamas in Gaza) took place.

The CST monitors anti-Semitism and provides security for Britain’s Jewish community.

Increase in UK anti-Semitism this year ‘due to better reporting’ – Diaspora – Jerusalem Post.

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Jewish Students Feel Wide Anti-Semitism, Online Study Says

2015/07/30 Leave a comment

US Antisemitism campuses - BrandeisInteresting studies and charts:

According to the Brandeis University study released Tuesday, a few schools, among them Canadian universities and schools in the California state system, have “particularly high levels of hostility toward Jews or Israel.”

The online survey of over 3,000 North American college students who have applied for a Birthright Israel trip — but have not yet taken the 10-day journey — found that one-third of respondents reported having been verbally harassed during the past year because they were Jewish. Nearly three-quarters said they had been exposed to at least one of six anti-Semitic statements, including the claims that Jews have too much power and that Israelis behave “like Nazis” toward the Palestinians.

More than one-quarter of respondents described hostility toward Israel by their campus peers as a “fairly” or “very big” problem, while nearly 15 percent reported the same level of hostility toward Jews.

Jewish Students Feel Wide Anti-Semitism, Online Study Says – Breaking News – Forward.com.

Antisemitism and the College Campus – Brandeis University

2014 Anti-Semitism Report – Jewish Virtual Library

Brandeis - Israel

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Auschwitz verdict will make it harder for Holocaust deniers, Canadian witness says

2015/07/22 Leave a comment

Another enduring reminder:

“The fact that he was found guilty was, to me, a very satisfactory outcome,” said Bill Glied, the Canadian survivor of Auschwitz who testified in Germany at the trial of Mr. Groening.

“Holocaust deniers will no longer be able to deny it after all, as a Nazi SS officer has said that what has happened is true – which is proof enough that the Holocaust actually existed.”

Mr. Glied was 13 when he arrived in at the camp in May, 1944, with his family. He was the only one who survived.

At least 1.1 million prisoners died at Auschwitz in German-occupied Poland, around 90 per cent of them Jewish.

“So, as far as the jail sentence, I couldn’t care less and I still don’t care. The important part is that he was found guilty,” said Mr. Glied, who works with March of the Living, a group dedicated to remembering those who perished, while also paying tribute to those who survived and making sure the events of more than 70 years ago are not forgotten.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center’s head Nazi hunter, Efraim Zuroff, also praised the verdict.

“This verdict was critical, because this is the first case brought where the prosecution charged a person who wasn’t involved in the physical side of mass murder,” he said in an interview last week with The Associated Press.

Auschwitz verdict will make it harder for Holocaust deniers, Canadian witness says – The Globe and Mail.

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European far-Right parties ‘seeking anti-Islam coalition with Jewish groups’

2015/07/16 Leave a comment

Not surprising but encouraging that most European Jewish groups have rejected the overture:

Right-wing European political parties are seeking to sow religious discord in Europe by approaching Jewish organisations in a bid to form an anti-Islamic alliance.

Speaking to Newsweek on condition of anonymity, a senior figure in one of Europe’s largest Jewish organisations has revealed that their group has been approached in the past year by MEPs, including members of the Austrian Freedom Party, seeking to create a coalition to combat the rise of Islam in Europe. They emphasized that all approaches had been flatly refused.

Last week, Marine Le Pen and other far-Right politicians met with Vadim Rabinovich, the chairman of the European Jewish Parliament (EJP), prompting criticism from European Jewish leaders.

Now the source says that far-Right’s rapprochement with Jewish groups is far from new as politicians from various parties have attempted to court their group, offering to “be friends with Jews” if Jewish groups “help us in our fight against Muslims”.

… The meeting drew criticism from prominent Jewish leaders and led to one member of the EJP, French rabbi Levi Matusof, resigning after the meeting which he called “opportunistic and inappropriate”.

The European Jewish Association, which claims to be the biggest federation of Jewish organisations in Europe, said that the EJP risked “magnifying the problem” of anti-Semitism by “giving a platform to those seeking to spread messages of hate”.

Dr Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said he was shocked that the EJP met with “fig leaf racists and anti-Semites” and added: “It goes without saying that these people [the EJP] are as unrepresentative of the vast majority of European Jews as this collective of Le Pen’s MEPs is of the vast majority of European citizens.”

In a statement on the EJP’s website, Rabinovich said he was “very surprised” by the negative reaction from other Jewish groups.

“The meeting with the [Europe of Nations and Freedom] opens the new dialogue, which, in our firm conviction is what Europe needs today – a dialogue of everybody with everyone, in order to preserve peace and tolerance and combat anti-Semitism in Europe,” said Rabinovich.

He added that a joint statement with Le Pen had condemned anti-Semitism as “the cancer of Europe”.

European far-Right parties ‘seeking anti-Islam coalition with Jewish groups’.

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Pew Research: Anti-Minority Sentiment Not Increasing in Europe

2015/07/14 Leave a comment

European Perceptions of Roma European Perception of Jews European Perceptions of MuslimsInteresting recent public opinion research on attitudes in Europe, with above charts showing highlights. Summary conclusion:

The economic downturn in Europe that followed the euro crisis raised concerns that economic stress would turn Europeans against each other, as many severe economic downturns have done throughout history, sparking xenophobia and anti-Semitism. And Europe has seen a number of hostile actions against Muslims, Jews, Roma and other minorities in recent years. But the activities of a few are not necessarily reflected in the views of the general public.

The 2015 Pew Research Center survey was conducted after the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the simultaneous attack on a Jewish grocery store, perpetrated by radical Islamists in Paris. But, in the wake of these events, there is no evidence that the atrocity sparked new public antipathy toward Muslims in any of the six European Union nations surveyed. In fact, favorability of Muslims actually improved in some nations. At the same time, French sympathy for Jews increased.

http://www.pewglobal.org/2015/06/02/chapter-3-anti-minority-sentiment-not-rising/

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Anti-Semitism in Malmö reveals flaws in Swedish immigration system

2015/05/25 Leave a comment

Another story on antisemitism in Malmö, exacerbated by the marginalization of Muslim immigrants and refugees:

Sweden has a generous immigration policy – last year the country of 9 million took in 85,000 refugees. According to an OECD study, that is more than twice as many immigrants per capita as any other member country. Canada, in comparison, takes a twentieth as many refugees proportionately.

In Malmö the immigrants are concentrated in one pocket of the city, Rosengaard. Unemployment in the area runs at 70 per cent, stones are thrown regularly at mail carriers and police, and 150 cars were torched during summer riots in 2013. Protests for and against Muslim immigrants are frequent and tough.

Engineer Peter Fribourg and his wife Marie, a lawyer, are what are now called ‘ethnic Swedes.’ “It’s a tough matter, you have different cultures colliding. We are not succeeding in the way we would like.”

Marie agrees, adding that Malmö meant well but was not properly prepared to help the huge influx of immigrants settle. “I was much more liberal and welcoming before … (but) there have been so many in the last few years we do not know how to deal with them. They will not assimilate.”

There have been 137 anti-Semitic incidents reported to authorities in Malmö the past two years.

The Rabbi of the Malmö synagogue, Shneur Kesselman, says he has been spat upon and cursed. Most recently, a bottle thrown from a passing car narrowly missed his head, he says.

The Rabbi of the Malmö synagogue says he has been spat upon, cursed, and was nearly hit recently by a bottle thrown from a passing car. (Karin Wells/CBC)

Some have left because they are scared. The Jewish community in Malmö has shrunk by 50 per cent to about 1,000 in the past 10 years.

“Hatred of Muslims, as bad as it is — and it’s terrible — is not challenging the Muslim minority, their safety,” Kesselman says.

“Anti-Semitism here in Malmö today is threatening the existence of a minority.”

Anti-Semitism in Malmö reveals flaws in Swedish immigration system – World – CBC News.

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Germany adds Jews to anti-Semitism watchdog after criticism

2015/05/23 Leave a comment

Corrective action.

One could not imagine having a group discussing bias and prejudice against Blacks without Black representation, anti-Muslim prejudice without Muslims, nor antisemitism without any Jews.

But conversely, only having representatives from the community under threat undermines the objective of  improving wider public understanding across society and thus influencing public debate:

The German federal government announced on Thursday that its anti-Semitism committee would be adding two Jewish members to its ranks, following criticism for not having done so at its inception. A statement from the government said that Interior Minister Thomas de Maizère (CDU) had invited the psychologist Marina Chernivsky to join, as well as Andreas Nachama, director of the Topography of Terror Foundation, the organization which operates Berlin’s museum on Nazi era.

The current incarnation of the anti-Semitism commission began work in December 2014, when de Maizère called for the creation of a group of experts to “resolutely combat anti-Semitism and continue promoting the sustainability of Jewish life in Germany.” The group had its first meeting in January of the year, and to the dismay of many Jewish groups, did not have a single member with a Jewish background.

Members of the group included Klaus Holz, the secretary general of the Evangelical Academy, Patrick Siegele, who runs the Berlin branch of the Anne Frank Center, and Juliane Wetzel, a historian at the Center for Anti-Semitism Research – but none of them are actually Jewish.

The sharpest critique came from Julius Schoeps, Director of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European Jewish Studies, who called it an “unrivaled scandal” on the part of the government.

Germany adds Jews to anti-Semitism watchdog after criticism | News | DW.DE | 21.05.2015.

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‘Lack of clarity’ over level of UK antisemitism, says new report

2015/05/16 Leave a comment

A useful note of caution in interpreting the degree of antisemitism in the UK, which likely applies to other countries as well, and the corresponding need for better research and data:

The extent of antisemitism in the UK is hard to gauge because there is a lack of accurate data, according to the Jewish community’s main think tank.

Despite a number of surveys carried out over the years, there remains a “distinct lack of clarity”, the Institute for Jewish Policy Research said in a new report, entitled “Could It Happen Here?”, this week.

Some sources showed that the level of antipathy towards Jews was “comparatively low and stable in the UK, even though other sources demonstrate that 2014 broke all known records for the number of antisemitic incidents.”

Other data suggested that fewer British adults held antisemitic attitudes than French, but that over the previous seven years more antisemitic incidents per head took place in Britain than in France.

During conflicts such as last summer’s Israel-Gaza War, the number of antisemitic incidents in the UK is usually three times above the monthly average, JPR said.

Antisemitic incidents usually rise by 30 per cent around the High Holy-Days.

Excluding these two exceptional periods, the number of antisemitic incidents has increased from 35 per month in 2004 to 51 last year, the report found.

“They may well indicate that levels of antisemitism in the UK have climbed over the course of the past decade,” JPR stated.

“However, one cannot rule out an alternative explanation – that the increase shown is due to an increased prevalence among Jews to report incidents in the first place.”

While Islamic extremists clearly pose a threat, the report says that “not enough is known about the extent to which their ideas, even in diluted form, permeate the Muslim population as a whole and whether the danger is growing, declining or stable over time”.

Calling for investment in proper research, JPR says the “Jewish community needs to steer away from knee-jerk reactions and ad hoc research enterprises. Monitoring trends in antisemitism requires more than having ‘being concerned’ or having good intentions.”

The alternative is wasted resources and persistent uncertainty “at the expense of greater clarity and, we believe, greater safety for Jews”.

‘Lack of clarity’ over level of UK antisemitism, says new report | The Jewish Chronicle.

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France Announces Stronger Fight Against Racism and Anti-Semitism

2015/04/20 Leave a comment

Serious government money and reasonably comprehensive approach:

Deadly attacks on Jews by Muslim extremists in January and a sharp spike in anti-Muslim acts since then have prompted the French government to elevate the fight against racism into “a great national cause,” leading government officials said on Friday.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls announced a detailed plan that dedicates 100 million euros, or $108 million, over the next three years to programs and policies that combat “racism and anti-Semitism,” including a nationwide awareness campaign, harsher punishments for racist acts and increased monitoring of online hate speech. “Racism, anti-Semitism, hatred of Muslims, of foreigners and homophobia are increasing in an intolerable manner in our country,” Mr. Valls said after visiting a high school in Créteil, a suburb of Paris that has large Jewish and Muslim populations.

“French Jews should no longer be afraid of being Jewish, and French Muslims should no longer be ashamed of being Muslims,” he said.

…Jewish organizations welcomed the effort, as did Muslim groups, whose leaders said they had been consulted on a recent official report on racist acts against Jews, Muslims and other populations.

The report, published last week by the National Consultative Commission on Human Rights, a government watchdog, found that from 2013 to 2014, the number of anti-Semitic acts had risen to 851 from 423, and that there were more aggressive acts targeting Muslims in January of this year than there were during all of 2014.

Many of the recent attacks have been violent. Places of worship have been damaged and vandalized. Muslim women who wear a hijab, or head scarf, have been physically attacked, including a veiled pregnant woman who was recently beaten in Toulouse.

…While the title of the government’s plan did not include the term “Islamophobia,” which is how French Muslims describe acts against them, Muslim leaders said they were gratified that the government did speak specifically about the need to fight anti-Muslim sentiments and actions in France.

“The president of the republic, François Hollande, has used the word ‘Islamophobia,’ he has recognized Islamophobia,” said Abdallah Zekri, the director of the National Observatory Against Islamophobia at the French Council of the Muslim Faith.

However, Mr. Zekri said he noticed that Mr. Valls had avoided using the word in the past. “Many people do not want to hear the word ‘Islamophobia’; they want to hear the word ‘anti-Muslim,’ ” he said.

Mr. Valls’s presentation of the plan did not mention racism targeting people who are black or Roma, but all racist behavior would be covered by the new measures.

The Canadian government largely ended broad anti-racism messaging and programming around 2008 (Canada’s Action Plan Against Racism or CAPAR) in favour of a narrower focus on antisemitism. CAPAR itself was a hodge-podge of initiatives, with minimal funding, and apart from Statistics Canada police reported hate crimes reporting, its end was no great loss.

But the lack of broader anti-racism and discrimination messaging, and the linkages between antisemitism and other forms of prejudice is an opportunity missed.

While the French have gotten so many things wrong in the citizenship, integration and multiculturalism policies and programs, this one they appear to have right.

France Announces Stronger Fight Against Racism and Anti-Semitism – NYTimes.com.

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Ed Miliband vows to tackle ‘scourge’ of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

2015/04/16 Leave a comment

From the British election campaign and the common messaging re antisemitism and Islamophobia:

The Labour leader said “huge advances” in equality had been made “but the work is not yet done” as he addressed an audience of Labour supporters in Leicester.

Black young people are twice as likely to be jobless while long-term unemployment has rocketed by nearly 50% under the coalition, according to Labour.

“We are a long way from the equality we need as a country,” Mr Miliband said during the event at the City’s Peepul Centre.

“We are going to look at every aspect of the way government works. We are going to have a race equality strategy for every part of the way government works and we are going to look at those barriers and we are going to break them down.”

He added: “We need to confront the scourge of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia head on with strong action on hate crimes.

“For the first time ever we are going to make sure that when people commit hate crimes they are clearly marked on the criminal records of those who commit them. And, tough new sentencing guidelines which ensure aggravated criminal offences based on hate crime are properly dealt with by the courts.”

The party is fielding 52 black and minority ethnic candidates at the General Election.

Ed Miliband vows to tackle ‘scourge’ of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia – Jewish News.

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